U.S. still leads world in higher-end manufacturing
By admin at 23 February, 2009, 6:05 am
It might seem as if the country that used to make everything is on the brink of making nothing.
In January, 207,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs vanished; it was the largest one-month drop since October 1982. Factory activity is hovering at a 28-year low. Even before the recession, plants were hemorrhaging work to foreign competitors with cheap labor. & some companies were moving production abroad.
But manufacturing in the United States isn’t dead or even dying. It’s moving upscale, following the biggest profits, & becoming more efficient, just as Henry Ford did when they created the assembly line to make the Model T.
The U.S. by far remains the world’s leading manufacturer by value of goods produced. It hit a record $1.6 trillion in 2007; that was double the $811 billion in 1987. For every $1 of value produced in China’s factories, the united states generates $2.50.
The U.S. sold over $200 billion worth of aircraft, missiles & space-related equipment in 2007. & $80 billion worth of autos & auto parts. Deere & Co., best known for its bright green-and-yellow tractors, sold $16.5 billion worth of farming equipment last year, much of it to the rest of the world. Then there’s energy products such as gas turbines made by General Electric for power plants, computer chips from Intel & fighter jets from Lockheed Martin.
So what’s made in the united states these days?
Several trends have emerged over the decades:
Household names such as GE, General Motors, IBM, Boeing, & Hewlett-Packard are among the largest manufacturers by revenue.
• U.S. companies have shifted toward high-end manufacturing as the production of low-value goods moves abroad. This has resulted in lower prices for shoppers & higher profits for companies.
• the united states makes things that other countries can’t. “Made in USA” is more likely to be stamped on heavy equipment or the circuits that go in other products than on the TVs, toys, clothes & other items on store shelves.
• When demand slumps, all types of manufacturing jobs are lost. Some higher-end jobs — but not all — return with nice times. Workers who make goods that are produced more cheaply abroad suffer.
four times this recession runs its course, surviving manufacturers will emerge more efficient & profitable, economists say. More valuable products will be made using fewer people. Products will be made where labor & other costs are cheaper. & manufacturers will focus on the most lucrative products.
Still, the perception of decline is likely to grow as factories & jobs vanish, & imports of most goods increase. Thirty years ago, U.S. producers made 80 percent of what the country consumed, according to the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI, an industry trade group. Now it’s around 65 percent.
About 12.7 million Americans, or 8 percent of the labor force, held manufacturing jobs as of last month. Fifty years ago, 14.6 million people, or 28 percent of all workers, toiled in factories. The decrease — although painful to those who lost jobs — shows how companies are making more with less.
Some U.S.-made products are hiding in plain sight.
Berner International Corp., based outside Pittsburgh, doesn’t make the clothes, dishes or sponges sold at Walmart, but its products hang above shoppers’ heads as shortly they come through the sliding doors.
Some companies saddled with high labor costs — sometimes called legacy costs that ensured workers high wages, pensions & handsome benefits — are struggling to survive. The auto industry faces the problems the steel industry faced in the 1980s.
The company’s 60 employees make air curtains — rectangular blowers mounted to the ceiling that keep out hot or chilly air, insects & dust while keeping in A/C & heat. Also called air doors, they hang from ceilings at Whole Foods & Starbucks, & above the big factory doors at Ford & Toyota plants.
Judy Horkman, 47, was devastated when he was laid off after 13 years of attaching handles to saute pans on the assembly line of a Mirro Cookware plant. But six years ago, Horkman took a job making industrial light fixtures for office buildings & warehouses at Orion Energy Systems Inc. he makes $12.50 per hour; it’s not the $13.80 he earned at Mirro, but Horkman said he is fine with that.
But other American manufacturers — & workers — have adapted.
“Regardless of my product, I’d put my heart into it. I put my hard work, my dedication, my quality into whatever I make,” he said. “I just imagine someone out there needs this, & I think about how nice I’d need it to be if it was for me.”
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